Situating Asian Diaspora Experiences in the U.S. within Historical Conditions of Exclusion, Disposability, and Dehumanization

• In Event: Asian Diaspora Theorizing: Defying Racism~Reimagining Alternate Nows~Invigorating Otherwise Futures

Abstract

Using Ang’s (2001) concept of Asian diasporas as a theoretical framework, this study problematizes historical discourses that define ‘Asians’ as the monolithic ‘other’ in relation to White identity as the normative self. The research examines the impact of historical discourses on Asian diasporas and their political disenfranchisement in educational spaces. The researcher advocates radical frameworks and critical methodologies situated within diaspora thinking (Ang, 2001), border theory (Hussein & Hussain, 2019), and decolonizing orientalism (Palat, 2000) that reconfigure educational theorizing in the language of interlocking relationships of nation, home and transnational spaces; intersectional, hybrid, and fluid identity formations. The study advocates multi-dimensional approaches embodied in Asian diaspora experiences in ways that reposition Asian diaspora experiences of resistance and activism as knowledge worth knowing in contemporary educational studies, research and practice.

Author

• Suniti Sharma, Saint Joseph's University